Reinforcement and spring clip construction for billfolds



Dec. 7, 1948. s. MILLER 2,455,515

REINFORCEMENT AND SPRING CLIP CONSTRUCTION FOR BILLFOLDS Original Filed Febl 5, 1942 Patented Dec. 7, 1948 REINFORCEMENT AND SPRING CLIP CONSTRUCTION FOR BILLFOLDS I Samuel Miller, Kew Gardens, N. Y.

Substituted for abandoned application Serial No. 429,590, February 5, 1942. This application November 6, 1945, Serial No. 626,925

1 Claim. 1.

This invention relates to devices for removably holding articles such as papers or bills, and has particular reference to compact, portable or pocket devices, such as billfolds.

The present application is a substitute for my application Serial No. 429,590, filed February 5, 1942, for Billfolds.

One object of the invention is to provide a device of the character described having improved means whereby articles can be removably retained in a particularly simple and compact manner.

Another object of the invention is to furnish a folder or similar device having improved means to facilitate the folder action and to releasably retain articles therein.

Another object of the invention is to construct a device such as a billfold having a simple spring clip and a holder therefor serving the correlated functions of holding bills or papers and of providi' z compactness, simplicity, decorativeness and reenforcement for the billfold, as well as greatly reducing its cost of manufacture.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the specification proceeds.

With the aforesaid objects in view, the invention consists in the novel combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described in their preferred embodiments, pointed out in the subjoined claim, and illustrated in the annexed drawing, wherein like parts are designated by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation showing a device embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Flg. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective isometric view of the device in open position showing in dot-dash lines a bill secured therein, and indicating in dot-dash lines the slidability of the clip.

Fig. 5 is a view in side elevation of a modification of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a top plan view thereof.

The advantages of the invention as here outlined are best realized when all of its features and instrumentalities are combined in one and the same structure, but, useful devices may be produced embodying less than the whole.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains, that the same may be incorporated in several different constructions. The accompanying drawing, therefore, is submitted merely as showingthe preferred exemplification of the invention.

Referring in detail to the drawing, l0 denotes a device embodying the invention, and being illustrative of an article holder or folder, such as a billfold, The same may comprise a wall on which various articles or papers may be mounted. This wall may include a'plurality of sections or leaf-like plates or members I 2 which are angularly movable toward and away from each other in closing and opening the device. As a binding or fold maintaining means, I may employ a metallic tube [3, which may be open ended, and split along a line M to provide confronting clamping edges or jaws at the split. This tube extends along an edge of said walls l2 and receives therein marginal portions l5 of the members l2. By clamping the tube on said marginal portions, the members l2 are permanently secured together by the tube jaws at M. The clamping operation may be facilitated by partially or temporarily securing together the members I! so that theywill not accidentally shift relative to each other during the clamping, If desired, the members l2 may be sewn together along a line coincident with the split [4, before the members are engaged with the tube l3. Moreover, the members l2 may consist of a single sheet folded, with its fold edge portion engaged in the tube l3, but this may be undesirable, because it may require a larger tube l3, and because the leather or composition materials of which the members l2 may consist, although flexible,

- may wrinkle or distort, and require additional care and labor in manufacture.

It is noted that the tube I3, in combination with the adjacent part of the members l2, affords an external tube structure IS, the metallic part of which is ornamental, and is continuously uniformly engaged with the members l2 to provide a neat device, which is reenforced by the tube 13. Since the latter may be quite small in diameter, compactness is maintained, and yet a powerful binding results which can be constructed very cheaply.

Co-operating with the tubular structure 16 is an article holding means such as a U-shaped spring clip I! having a pair of arms l8, I!) which are resiliently urged toward each other, and having a bight portion 20. The said arms may be alike, but preferably the arm I8 is relatively straight for easy sliding insertion into the tube l3 whereas the arm I9 is disposed inside of the the device I0 as between the members l2, and

serves as a holder for various articles such as papers or bills. Accordingly the bight portion 20 extends across the wall II at an end thereof and may form an ear whereby the device I may be suspended for display and other purposes. To facilitate the action of the arm I9, the same may have an outwardly turned finger 2i, and, if desired, itmay be bowed to provide a plurality of spaced pressure areas at 22, 23 for securely frictionally' holding the papers or bills. The spring clip may be a conventional bobby pin.

Because the clip l1 bears as at l on the leather or other fibrous material of the leaves l2, there is a frictional engagement which supplements the rigid, relatively permanent binding afforded by tube IS. The portions of the leaves lying within the tube afford a body greatly augmenting the mass engaged in the clip ensuring a secure engagement, this mass being highly yieldable, because the clip acts angularly thereon, to thus accommodate the clip when a large or a small number of bills are held thereby. The clip is thus reliably continuously engaged along its path of movement, the area of frictional engagement with the inner parts of the leaves being a maximum when the clip is moved into bill clamping position as shown in full lines in Fig. 4.

It will be noted. that the arm [8 may be removably retained in the tube i3 or permanently connected therewith, and in either case, the spring clip i1 may be slid up and down as s gested in Fig. 4 to aid in passing the holder arm 19 over a paper or bill and to facilitate removal of the same. However, the spring clap ll may be permanently maintained in its lowered position as shown in Fig. 1. In that case, the bills such as 24 are slid up or down under the holder arm is for insertion and removal ofv the bills.

The arm l8 may seat itself between the marginal portions l5 of the members l2, as shown in Fig. 3, so as to press these marginal portions apart to thus afford additional securement against any accidental release of the members from the clamping tube l3. If the leaves l2 consist of a single folded sheet, then the clip bears upon the fold which is thus flattened down against the tube.

bers l2 and closely adjacent to the tube IS, the angular position of the spring clip is relatively fixed, and the arm I9 is caused to bear against that part of the wall I l which is strongly backed by the tube l3. Because of the flexibility of the members l2, they are adapted to readily bend and conform about the arm IS with said members lying quite close together in the closed position of the device.

In Figs. 5 and 6 is shown a modification wherein a device 25 embodies the principles of the device I 0 but possesses the additional advantages of affording a plurality of compartments in Since the holder arm l9 lies between the mem- 4 y a highly compact manner. Thus the wall Ila is arranged to form a Z in cross section, as shown in Fig. 6, thus affording outer leaf-like members 28 and an intermediate leaf-like member 21 which is desirably of greater length than the former, so that the tubular structures la which may be like those at It, are exposed and free of the adjacent free edges of the members 20. Thus a plurality of compartments 2! are provided which may be used to hold diflerent papers or bills of different denominations, each compartment being constructed alike and being operative in the same manner as the billfold [0. The device 2| has the further advantage of being reenforced at opposite ends by the tubular structures so that it will not wrinkle or curl in the pocket of the user.

I claim:

A billfold having a plurality of separate leaves of pliable material, a one-piece binder tube of rigid material extending substantially the full length of the leaves and being split from end to end thereof to provide uniformly spaced freeedge jaws, the leaves having sections thereof permanently clamped between said jaws, these sections having portions projecting inward of the tube beyond the jaws and providing a flexible body in the tube, and a U-shaped spring clip having a crotch portion at an end of the split tube, one arm of the clip being external of the tube and lying freely exposed between the leaves so as to be adapted to be sprung over bills disposed in the billfold, the other arm of the clip being housed in the tube in overlying relation to said flexible body and being thus retained by the tube in cooperation with the external portions of the leaves between which the outer arm lies, the said flexible body extending substantially from end to end of the split tube and the clip being movable at least partially longitudinally of the tube in snug, frictional engagement with the said flexible body to prevent accidental removal of the clip.

SAMUEL MILLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Germany Nov. 16, 1885 France Oct. 10, 1921 Great Britain Sept. 24, 1931 Number Number 

